Margaret Downey and the Freethought Society has long put up a display at Christmas time called the Tree of Knowledge, which is basically a Christmas tree with books about science and freethought as the ornaments. In Chester County, PA they had the display up along with the county’s nativity scene for three years, until 2010, when the board there voted a new resolution that allowed commissioners to reject such displays.

Every year since they have done so, while keeping the nativity scene. And it just happened again. This is the rejection letter they just received about it:

Chester County Resolution 58-10 is the resolution the board passed in 2010 that gives them exclusive determination over which displays are allowed and which are not. From 2007 to 2009, the Tree of Knowledge appeared at the courthouse, where it was vandalized a total of 12 times. Every year they have requested that this resolution be rescinded and the display allowed and every year they are rejected. There have been resolutions introduced by one board member to do so, but they have failed to even get a second, much less a full vote. It’s time for a legal challenge to this resolution.